The Specialized Philatelic Wiki

War Tax Stamps of the Independent State of Croatia

War tax stamps (ratni doprinos, lit: war contribution) were issued for the benefit of the Postal Administration of the Independent State of Croatia. The stamps were designed by Mr. Bravo Muhamed from Sarajevo.

Experts who were studying this issue classified these stamps »as a means of increasing postage fees« (Ercegović, 1995: 418) and are, as such, not surcharge stamps in strict sense of the term but a sort of a definitive issue. This notion is based on the following facts:

Decree of the Ministry of Transport, by which the stamps were introduced is not based on a regulation of mandatory collection of contributions for caritative purposes and that the postal administration is issuing them on its own accord.

Owners of franking machines were not obliged to use the stamps but only to imprint the correct amount of postage fee, increased for appropriate surcharge.

In case the surcharge stamp was not put on the envelope upon sending, regular postage due stamps, in double the amount, would be applied upon reception.

Print

The stamps were printed by Hrvatska državna tiskara in Zagreb, in photogravure on a white thick soft paper. Printing sheet consisted of 4 postal sheets, each having 100 stamps. Postal sheets on a printing sheet were not marked. Circulation is unknown.

The stamps were issued twice as the fees, planned at the end of 1943, were increased in May 1944.

At this time 2 kuna stamp was used for printed papers, specimens with no value, ads and AR cards.

Unissued stamps

Stamps for 30 and 60 kuna were planed to be released on the January 1st 1945 but the printing was delayed and the issue postponed. These stamps appeared on the market after the war and were never postally used.

Varieties and types

In tables below, the exact position of a variety in a sheet is indicated. In literature not all varieties were recorded. The possible constant varieties are presented in separate tables.

Constant varieties

CONSTANT VARIETIES

2 kuna, carmine

I

II

III

IV

I

Broken lower part of the letter S in DOPRINOS

–

–

?

–

II

White spot on the wounded’s head.

93

–

–

–

III

White spot below the letter N in DOPRINOS.

–

–

29

–

IV

White spot on top of wounded’s head.

91

–

–

–

POSSIBLE CONSTANT VARIETIES (not mentioned in literature)

1 kuna, slate green

1

White dot to the right of the first letter A in HRVATSKA (100th stamp).

2 kuna, carmine

1

Broken upper part of the letter S in DOPRINOS.

2

Colored dot below letter P and damaged letter S in DOPRINOS.

3

White dot inside the letter V of HRVATSKA.

4

Various spots on the wounded’s face, big colored dot between letters I in RATNI and D in DOPRINOS and a S-shaped smudge at the end of the inscription DOPRINOS.

5

Horizontal dotted line on wounded’s neck.

6

Small colored dot between letters I in RATNI and D in DOPRINOS.

7

Small colored dot between letters I and N in DOPRINOS.

8

Color smudge between letters N and I in RATNI.

9

White dot between letters D and H in N. D. HRVATSKA.

10

White dot on the lower left part of the second letter O in DOPRINOS.

11

Red dot on the letter I in DOPRINOS.

12

Red don above the letter O in DOPRINOS.

13

Colored dot on the wounded’s face.

14

White dot on the wounded’s face.

15

Big red scar on wounded’s face (the 1st stamp).

16

White dot on the numeral 2 (the 2nd stamp).

17

Colored dot on letter D in N. D.

18

Red dot on wounded’s face.

19

Red dot on the bandage on the forehead.

20

White dot on the right side of the second letter A in HRVATSKA.

21

White dot above the last letter A in HRVATSKA.

22

Two white dots on wounded’s shoulder above letter I in RATNI.

23

Colored dot in letter N in RATNI.

24

White line on the right lower serif of the final letter A in HRVATSKA.